Rafael Montero survived the New York Mets roster purge this offseason which saw Chasen Bradford and Josh Smoker head to the Seattle Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates respectively.
The right-hander is out of options meaning he has to be on the Mets 25-man roster to open the season, designated for assignment, released or traded. Meaning the Mets are giving him plenty of rope to prove he’s still worth keeping around.
Montero starting the spring with four solid innings of one-run ball and six strikeouts. On Wednesday against the Yankees he had his first rough outing of the spring.
He would strike out the first batter he faced before allowing three straight singles to load the bases. He walked the next hitter to force in a run. An error by Ty Kelly extended the inning and allowed one run to score to make shrink the Mets lead to 4-3 in the top of the eighth.
Right-hander Corey Taylor relieved Montero and got the first batter he faced. Then Billy McKinney blasted a grand slam to give the Yankees a 7-4 lead.
Montero ended up allowing five runs (two earned) on three hits, one walk and one strikeout. The outing left Mets manager Mickey Callaway perplexed about Montero, ”I really couldn’t tell what his intent was with his pitches.”
The outing ballooned his spring ERA to 6.23 and WHIP to 1.62 though he does have seven strikeouts those 4.1 innings.
The 27-year-old got his biggest major league chance in 2017 with the Mets when he threw 119 innings. He posted a 5.52 ERA, 1.75 WHIP, 4.37 FIP and walked 51 compared to 114 strikeouts.
Zack Wheeler, Matt Harvey, Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman have all had good showings this spring and stayed healthy giving the Mets plenty of options in the oration alongside Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Jason Vargas.
It’s likely that at least one of Wheeler, Lugo, Gsellman and the struggling Steven Matz end up in the bullpen. Two of them landing in the bullpen could likely end the long turbulent career for former top 100 prospect Rafael Montero.
